Splash! "Avi!", growled a mud covered Kurapika.

I stared at him innocently and helpfully said,"It looks like you crapped your pants." It would be easier to justify killing Kurapika if I hated him more and didn't respect his intelligence as much.

Kurapika remained calm, somehow, and continued to run. Meanwhile, I noticed Gon and Killua begin to sprint at a faster pace. 'They're working together and leaving the rest of our group to die!' I furiously thought. But wait...I'd do the same. I couldn't fault them. But why were they speeding up now? Maybe I should stay near Kurapika.

With that, I altered my path so I was running beside Kurapika who was staring at me curiously.

"You were throwing up earlier", Kurapika commented while staring at my face, waiting for a reaction. I gave none.

"And now you seem to be running more easily than anybody here." 'No reaction, no reaction', I chanted.

If anybody was clever enough to figure out that I have been taking illegal drugs to boost my stamina it would be Kurapika. Of course. If he was a moron, this exam would be ten times easier.

I stared at him and said,"It's a natural ability of my people." Which was complete bullshit, but Kurapika didn't know.

Kurapika's eyes narrowed. "Your people?" he questioned. He was skeptical and rightly so.

I smiled and nudged him. Maybe I could try being seductive? I batted my eyes and smile again "Clever people", I simpered.

Kurapika just stared at me, said nothing, and continued to run. Predictable.

"Kurapika! Leorio! Killua said we'd better move to the front!", a voice shouted from up ahead.

I stared at Kurapika. "Gon."

Kurapika's tan-grey eyes narrowed. "Now why would Killua want to move ahead now?"

I snickered at Kurapika. "Don't be a fool, Kurapika. Look at where we're running."

Kurapika glanced at me in shock. "You called ME a fool!?"

He continued to stare and I blinked. Then it made sense to me. "Right...I take it Hisoka hasn't personally spoken to you."

Then something switched in Kurapika's gaze "You talked with Hisoka?"

I glanced over my shoulder to see Hisoka's eyes wildly darting from applicant to applicant...the sickly yellow color seemed to shine with madness...

"Hisoka who is going to fucking kill us unless we hurry up", I hurriedly said to Kurapika. Before I knew it, I was blatantly directing Kurapika,"Run ahead and take my backpack. I'll get Leorio and then we both will have enough energy to catch up to you." Hisoka was beginning to close in.

Kurapika raised his eyebrows in surprise but seemed to approve of my idea of how not to die by Hisoka's hands...er...cards.

I thrusted my backpack at him and began to fall back, closer to Hisoka. And Leorio.

"Leorio", I hissed,"Start sprinting or Hisoka's going to kill you." Leorio's jaw dropped in shock. "You came back for me?"

Then I almost tripped...I came BACK for Leorio and gave KURAPIKA my fucking backpack! What the fuck was I thinking?

Suddenly Kurapika appeared in front of Leorio and me. But on the ground. "Fuuuuck", I moaned. Why did Kurapika have to trip?

An applicant screamed-Hisoka! A quick glance behind me confirmed that Hisoka was still running alongside applicants, not attacking anybody yet.

"The scream came from ahead of us!" Kurapika hissed at me, "Not behind!"

I rolled my eyes. Stupid hearing. But I jerked to a stop as a giant tortoise stomped towards Kurapika, Leorio, and me.

"Shit!" Leorio swore.

"Give me my backpack!" I ordered Kurapika. He shoved my backpack at me. I shook my wrist so my switchblade fell into my hand.

I paused and scanned the surrounding area. Tortoises were snatching applicants and chewing on them. This was the time.

A tortoise lunged toward Leorio who raised his sword to block it. NOW!

I jumped at Kurapika, switchblade out to slit his throat when I saw movement in my peripheral vision. Another tortoise!

Instincts kicked in and I changed the course of the knife so it stabbed the tortoise in the eye, blood spurted out, covering both Kurapika and myself.

While I was stabbing the tortoise, I had slammed into Kurapika and sent both of us to the ground.

Kurapika landed with a loud thud and fortunately for me, I landed on top of him.

For a moment, we paused to stare at each other and then..."You!", Kurapika growled as he flipped us over, eyes turning scarlet red.

I stared in awe at the color, never having seen it before...it wasn't scarlet but...there was an inner light red core of the iris surrounding the pupil, an orangey red which extended into a blood red and finally the edges were dark. A dark maroon. They were beautiful.

And they were blazing in anger. "Why did you try to kill me?" Kurapika roared in fury. Me, being the genius that I am, could only stare into his beautiful eyes and becoming entranced with the way the colors seemed to shift.

"I...your eyes", I slowly said. Kurapika flinched and realized how close we were and that his eyes were blazing scarlet. His expression changed to one of horror and self-loathing.

Once his looked away from me it was like I could think again. "I was saving you from the tortoise", I lied, thinking quickly.

It was then that I saw the Leorio stab the tortoise in the eye with a stick he had managed to grab. "Run!", he screamed as he raced towards us, tortoise in pursuit.

I shoved Kurapika off of me and I leap to my feet and sprinted for the thick, misty forest. The tortoise couldn't follow us in there...

I had made it! Kurapika and Leorio raced past me.

"Hurry up Avi!", snapped Leorio from ahead.

I quickly raced after him.

"Where are we even going?", Leorio asked me.

I shrugged. "Not a clue."

Kurapika shushed both of us. "There's someone in that clearing."

The closer we came to the figure the clearer it was: Hisoka.

And he was surrounded by a mob of other applicants.

"Maybe they'll just kill Hisoka", I whispered to Kurapika who shook his head in disagreement.

"No, he will win," Kurapika responded.

"I knew you weren't Hunter material", one with a stick said.

"We'll spare you if you swear never to take the Hunter Exam again", another group member said as he aggressively thrust his stick at a bored Hisoka.

"Sure", Hisoka drawled as he looked at his nails. 'Probably for blood stains', I joked in my mind. But my amusement turned to fear when I realized that it could actually be true. "I'm passing the Exam this year so I won't need to retake it."

Leorio inhaled a breath of shock as all three of us stood behind trees, Leorio and Kurapika too curious to move and me too paranoid regarding Hisoka to care about attacking Kurapika.

Hisoka chuckled ominously,"Why don't *I* play examiner and judge whether or not you are Hunter material?"

"He's going to slaughter them all", I whispered to myself. But Kurapika heard and glanced at me. Our eyes met and we both nodded. We were allies for the time being. We needed to somehow get to the other side of the clearing without alerting Hisoka.

Hisoka raised a card and with a quick flip of the hand, had murdered a significant amount of applicants.

"All with one hand twitch", Leorio gasped. "Shhhh", Kurapika and I both hissed at him.

Urine dripped down Applicant 76's pant leg as he stumbled back in fear away from Hisoka.

"H-He-Help!", applicant 76 screamed as Hisoka's card became embedded in his head.

Well fuck...then Hisoka seemed to tense and I grasped the handle of my switchblade harder.

"Well?", Hisoka loudly called.

My heart stopped...Hisoka knew we were there.

"Care to participate in my little game of examiner?"

Hisoka slowly stalked toward us.

Sweat dripped down Kurapika's Leorio's, and my faces.

"Leorio, Avi", Kurapika muttered,"On my signal, we run in opposite directions."

"What?", Leorio protested.

"He is vastly more experiences in real combat", Kurapika replied. Unfortunately Kurapika was correct. Hisoka could easily kill all of us with one finger.

Kurapika continued,"The three of us don't stand a chance against him. We cannot afford to squander time in a pointless fight!"

Then I stepped in front of Leorio and Kurapika. "He'll kill us with a card to the back of the head", I coolly responded. The drugs made me feel very confident-overly confident. It was a very convenient side effect right now.

Hisoka stopped and stared at me. I mean stared directly at me. Then his lips turned upwards into what looked like a calculating grin; my blood ran cold.

That's when something inside of me snapped, something ugly. Perhaps it was a survival instinct of some sort.

Much like I did earlier, I kicked mud at Hisoka as I leapt to the side and threw my backpack at him, which caught him off guard.

Kurapika was immediately on Hisoka's other side and swung a katana down, only for it to be blocked by a card...

"How the fuck", I began-but I was cut off as Hisoka leapt to his feet, faster than humanly possible and punched me.

Everything after that was a bit of a blur.

"Avi!", someone shouted.

Yellow eyes, shining with insanity were looking at me for a split second and coming closer, until a bobber flew in front of my face.

"Saved by your friend. How fortunate", Hisoka's voice drawled above me...he sounded very close.

Panic blossomed in me but I...I could not focus...I could not even see straight.

But what I did see was Gon with what I thought was a useless fishing pole.

"A most interesting weapon", Hisoka commented, his voice now directed toward Gon as he walked away from me.

"Allow me a closer look."

Then Hisoka was everywhere...hopping around Gon, mocking him...Kurapika...Leorio

They all swung at him but that's when I got the bright idea of trying to move. Immediately sparks, colors, and pain colored my vision.

I moaned as I crumpled to the ground. Who knew a punch could have affected me so badly?

My vison began to fade until I heard the pained gasp of somebody in front of me.

I fought to stay awake and saw Hisoka choking Gon...no!

Immediately my mind shot to my brother, Brec. He and Gon were so similar...no...I couldn't.

In a final act of idiocy, I grabbed my switchblade and plunged it into Hisoka's calf and he tensed, turned around, and looked down at me.

He turned his back on me and focused on Gon, who was struggling to remain conscious as well.

"You passed. Grow up and become a fine Hunter", he told Gon as he crouched down to look at the expression of Gon's face.

Suddenly Kurapika was standing beside me. "That's it?", he questioned Hisoka

A beep sounded from Hisoka's walkie talkie and he ignored us as he answered it and walked out of the clearing.

I vomited once again on Kurapika's shoes.

"Avi!", he yelped.

I simply clutched my head in pain and croaked,"Let's reach the next phase site so I can stick my head in a bucket of ice."

Kurapika nodded. "Thank you. For saving me from the tortoises."

"I can't really focus," I said, hating how I needed Gon and Kurapika's help to return back to the phase site.

Kurapika grabbed my arm and Gon moved to my other side.

"We'll help you", Gon said,"We stick together. We'll work to help one another and protect each other from Hisoka."

It was then that I experienced my first real doubt regarding killing Kurapika.

It would be extremely hard to kill the person who should have left me for dead after Hisoka's punch had messed up my ability to focus. But he didn't. If only I had a reason to hate Kurapika more, but it was hard when he was one of the people practically dragging me to the next phase's exam site.